Good morning from Beijing! We wanted to get going nice and early… but still being a bit tired we only left the hotel around 10 in the morning. Still not too bad. By 10:30 we were at the Forbidden City ready to go in. Look at that smile!
And this is just past that gate. The entrance to the Forbidden City!
Then we get in line… Only to find out this was the wrong line. Only people with tickets were in this line. Good thing we found out once we got to the very front!
We went to the ticket counter… and… sold out. Awesome. They told us to try again tomorrow morning. They open at 9 am. We will be here, don’t you worry. So… we had to make a snap decision of where to go next. We had planned to be in the Forbidden City for most of the morning, if not the day. Luckily right beside it was the People’s Culture Palace (Working People’s Cultural Palace or Imperial Ancestral Palace). We waited in a much, much shorter line (3 people) and quickly entered the grounds. This complex was built in 1420 and, like the Forbidden City, has its entrance facing the south and is completely symmetrical.
From the picture you may notice that there was a photoshoot for newlyweds on the main steps. We saw so many! The people on the steps were dressed in traditional Chinese attire, while the rest were dressed as the west. In the below picture you can see another three wedding photoshoots. It must be wedding season in China!
But there weren’t only weddings in the People’s Culture Palace. There were also art exhibits and loads of intricate carvings all over the buildings. It was filled with dragons everywhere.
And then we entered the main building, the Sacrificial Hall, the only place that they checked our ticket. This is where sacrificial ceremonies were held during the Qing Dynasty. These were conducted during the first month of each of the four seasons, at the end of the year, or for important events such as marriages, funerals, assuming power, conferring noble titles, or wars. It is absolutely huge inside. 32.46 metres tall to be exact.
And with that we strolled around the outside of the complex, back towards the Forbidden City. The outside of the People’s Culture Palace is also very nice with cypress trees all around. All of the trees have their own stories written so that you can learn the history of them. Some were planted by emperors, others were only able to survive in soil brought from the Forbidden City itself, and then there is the Cypress on a Tree.
This cypress just started growing out of another tree’s branch 8 metres in the above the ground. If that’s not weird enough, this particular branch points directly to the Imperial Palace. The Qing Dynasty took this as a symbol of the stability of the dynasty after they took over the palace from the previous dynasty. So it really is a very important and symbolic tree. Then it was back to the Forbidden City. The picture below shows the walkway around the City walls, which is how we have gotten there these past two days. This time we’re going around the other side of the City though, we have a new goal.
Our next goal is Beihai Park. Why would we want to go to this park? We had seen pictures of the White Dagoba and we were hooked. You can see it in the distance below, along with a close up to really highlight our goal.
Apart from that, the park is pretty old. It was started in 938, so this place is over 1,000 years old. That alone is pretty cool. And then add in the White Dagoba and the temples, the better question would be why wouldn’t we want to go to this park? Welcome to a “masterpiece of Chinese classical imperial garden”.
What no one tells you is that to get to the White Dagoba you have to climb, and climb, and climb. Luckily there are temples along the straight path upwards for you to stop and look at. Which were, of course, very nice. But no pictures were allowed within the temples. So instead you get to see our climb!
Not only was it pretty much straight up, the heat didn’t help. I’m just glad my partner does all the walking while I look at the scenery go by from the backpack. This is as close as I got to walking up to the White Dagoba, hehe.
But, it was absolutely worth it once we had finally made it to the top.
We even got a glimpse of the Forbidden City from between the trees. Not that we’re obsessed or anything.
At this point we were a little tired, a little hot, a little thirsty, and a little hungry. So we stopped by the water to rest for a bit before continuing our exploration of Beijing. We weren’t the only ones to have this idea. The lake was filled with people sitting and enjoying the weather. Maybe they didn’t make the climb to the top.
But enough rest. Off we go. We headed north. Do be 100% honest, we did not have much of a plan other than to keep moving to see what we could see. In the distance we saw a huge building that looked rather old, so we decided that that was as good a direction as any. As we walked through the city we saw stores, people, and cars everywhere. It is a very busy city. But it makes sense when it is one of the biggest cities in the world (one of the main reasons we decided to visit!).
As we approached the large building we saw that there was a lot of people moving around to our left. I wonder what that might be about… So, we went there. Turns out it was a small shopping district with small stores and restaurants. We think that it was South Luogu Lane, but if you recognize the place, let us know if that is mistaken!
And then we finally made it to that large building. Turns out that it is the Drum Tower.
And the Bell Tower was just behind it.
But we decided not to hang around anymore since we had gotten pretty close to another temple that we wanted to go to instead and it was starting to get late in the afternoon, so we had to hurry a little bit.
We passed through some other small shops along the way and found out that China has it’s own Valentine’s Day instead of the 14th of February like the western world uses. Maybe that explains all the wedding photoshoots we saw earlier.
Again, this area was filled with little shops and it was filled with people. Eventually we will get used to it, we swear.
One of the little shops even offered to make you into a figurine as you waited. Now that is intense. The likenesses of the figurines to the pictures was remarkable. Usually we wouldn’t share this kind of a picture, but it was just too good. We just stared for a good 15 minutes as the man worked on this figurine as the person waited beside him.
Anyway, that’s enough shopping for now. Let’s keep moving to our next temple or we will never make it there. We are now headed, without any more detours, to the Beijing Confucian Temple and Guozijian (Imperial College). This temple was established in 1287. And just inside the entrance, we met the main man himself.
This temple complex was a lot bigger than we had anticipated. It had temples where you could learn about Confucian and a lot of ancient artifacts. Some of our favourite artifacts were these absolutely massive stone sculptures called steles. This one was ordered by the emperor to commemorate the successful suppression of the riot in Qinghai of 1725.
A little further was Da Cheng Hall. This is the main structure of the complex and is where Confucius was enshrined. Emperors would come here to worship Confucius. It was originally built in 1302, but it needed to be rebuilt in 1411 after it had been previously destroyed.
And just outside of the main temple is this cypress tree. This is the type of tree that everyone should have around. It is over 700 years old and is said to be able to distinguish wicked courtiers from loyal ones. It is said that Yan Song, a wicked minister, once came to the temple to worship Confucius at the temple, but when he passed by the cypress there was a strong wind that caused a branch to knock his black gauze hat off of his head! The tree had been able to distinguish a wicked courtier from a loyal one and has since been named Chu Jian Cypress (Wicked-Courtier-Dinstinguishing Cypress).
We then heard some commotion near the back of the complex, so we obviously headed in that direction. Good life choice. We made it to a large stage and there were only a few people waiting. We sat down (half to rest, half in anticipation) just in time before it started to fill up. We were just in time for some traditional Chinese dancing. There were so many different dances, the whole show must have lasted about 15 or 20 minutes. We definitely got lucky.
Then we exited the complex towards the Imperial College through a hall of stone tablets to reach the Glazed Memorial Arch. It was built in 1784 and is the only memorial arch to have been set up for an educational institution in Beijing. It is thought to have been dedicated by emperor Qianlong.
And then it was time for our last photo op of the complex before it was time to start heading back towards our hotel (we were pretty far at this point). But with these pictures we will also leave you with some of Confucian teachings that we learned while exploring the complex. The first is that Confucian political theory had a great effect on early Chinese politics because it stopped the recruitment of government officials based on heredity. Instead a Nine Rank System was developed during the Sui and Tang dynasties (589 – 622 AD) as an examination system that was independent of the born aristocracy of the candidates. This is based in part because Confucius believed that only virtuous and capable people should occupy positions of government. This struck us as pretty advanced thinking for the time, especially considering that much of Europe was only just beginning the Middle Ages.
Then we left the complex and tried to get into one last temple… but it was closed for the day when we got there. I guess we will just have to come back for it next time! So off we went in the general direction of our hotel. Along the way we stopped and watched some men playing a game… that we can’t tell you what it is or how it is played. We Googled “Chinese chess” and a similar picture comes up, but if you know what it actually is, please let us know! Whatever it was, we probably stood there for 10 minutes watching this unknown game.
And then we saw another game, this time with a bigger crowd. It must be pretty popular.
Then it was almost a straight line back to the stores that were close to our hotel. We decided to do a little last second shopping as we are already leaving Beijing tomorrow afternoon, and with all the museums/temples closing or closed, we might as well do something. Other than enjoy our last Chinese sunset, of course.
We also walked by the same cathedral as last night, but in the daylight, we can actually give you some information about it. It is called Wangfujing Cathedral (St. Joseph’s Cathedral) and it was originally built in 1655. However, the building that you see below had to be reconstructed in 1905 and is now one of the best known catholic churches in all of Beijing. It is supposed to incorporate both Chinese and Western architecture. Looks pretty different than all the churches we saw in Russia, huh?
And that’s that, our last full day in Beijing! We just shopped around until it was time to go to sleep. So we leave you with a few pictures from our shopping district. Goodnight from Beijing!
